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AI Helps With Answers. Now Natural Intelligence Must Ask the Right Questions

Being Human for a Better Tomorrow in the Age of AI

  • July 12, 2024
  • Edition 6
AI Helps With Answers. Now Natural Intelligence Must Ask the Right Questions.png

Right from school we are tuned and graded by our ability to answer questions.

Times are changing.

With generative AI and machine learning, never before in history has exploring and finding answers been as easy to use and so easily accessible, But this ease presents a new challenge and an opportunity.

Stepping back, the 17th and 18th centuries was a golden Age of Reason. Our knowledge about science, society and philosophy took a giant leap. The 19th and 20th centuries was the Age of Automation where technology (defined broadly to cover all man made production interventions) provided all the means and finding answers.

In the 21st century, we have now entered the Age of Questioning.


Now is the time to put your natural intelligence to use to ask the right questions.
Some suggestions and ideas :

Yourself

  • The Proust Questionnaire is a list of 35 personal questions, probing areas like habits, preferences, motivation and values designed to understand your self
  • The first four editions of Mindvista newsletter - Why do you work? How do you work? How do you learn? How do you make time?

Work

  • What does business NOT as usual WILL look like?

Past Events

  • Causal analysis - The Five Whys: Developed by Sakichi Toyoda for Toyota, this technique involves asking "why" five times to get to the root of a problem or issue.

Future Decisions

Cartesian questions inspired by Rene Descartes

  • What will happen if I do this?
  • What will happen if I don’t do this?
  • What won’t happen if I do this?
  • What won’t happen if I don’t do this?

Future Consequences

  • First order consequences which we normally think about. Now adding a second, third order by asking “And then what?” and thinking across time like what do the consequences look like in 1 month? 1 year ? 10 Years? ( Courtesy Farnam St )

This is but a very short list and there are plenty of mental models to explore and use.

Naval Ravikant says – “What can I do for the next 60 days to become a clearer, more independent thinker?

Asking the right questions is a start!

I hope these insights help.
Please subscribe, follow and share, Your comments and feedback are very welcome.


Best wishes.

Select Quotes

"The important and difficult job is never to find the right answers, it is to find the right question."
― Peter Drucker
"The art of questioning is a vital part of the art of learning."
― Harold Bloom
"The key to wisdom is to keep asking questions."
― Deepak Chopra
"A good question is often half the answer."
― John Dewey
“The uncreative mind can spot wrong answers, but it takes a very creative mind to spot wrong questions.”
"We should question everything. Especially our answers."
― Voltaire

II. Questioning / Asking

Good conversations flow from well‑sequenced questions—topical, simple, coherent, cohesive.
LLM Conversation Example 1
Q: What are empirical judgments?

A: Empirical judgments are based on observation, experience, or experimentation.
Q: What are moral judgments?

A: Moral judgments are based on ethical principles and values.
“AI is a language. Treat it like one: practice, iterate, and mind your grammar prompts, assumptions, and verification.”
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